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It
is an ideal opportunity to have time away from the mundane things of
life and take time out to be encouraged in the Lord and to spend time
with our sisters in Christ, catching up on news with "old" friends and
also making new ones. There are lots of opportunities to share our joys
and sorrows and to pray for one another and this mainly goes on in
little group conversations or on one-to-one chats. |
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The
main speaker was Elaine Duncan, Chief Executive of the Scottish Bible
Society; she has also worked with Scripture Union and the Universities
Christian Fellowship and participated in events such as the Keswick
Convention and Spring Harvest. Her theme for the weekend was "Following
Jesus" and was divided into three sessions – "Learning with Jesus";
"Growing with Jesus"; "Working with Jesus" – using scripture mainly
from Colossians and John's gospel. Elaine guided us through incidents
from Jesus life and encouraged us to see what Jesus is doing today. She
stressed the importance of living as He did, of being like Him in our
conduct and of being with people for God and being with God for people
– intimacy and involvement. This comes out of the richness of our
relationship with the Lord; depending on how rich our relationship is
will determine our effectiveness as Christians in our world. She
finished with a suggestion that maybe our expectation of what the Lord
can do needs to be raised. Jesus is "yes" to all of God's promises.
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We
always have a Baptist Missionary with us and Jacqui Wells who had just
retired from working amongst the Karen people of Thailand was present
with us and brought an up-to-date report of the work going on there in
word and in power-point pictures.
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Saturday
evening is a fun time with a number of the women taking part. As this
was the beginning of the 100th year of Baptist women's work in Scotland
we looked back over the years in a humorous and entertaining way.
On Sunday morning we joined with the Baptist Church in St Andrews for
their morning worship service, and in the evening we shared in a
worship and Communion service led by our President, Rev. Annette
Morrison.
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We
were very honoured and privileged to have the EBWU President, Livija
Lame, with us for the weekend. Over the past year the women have shown
more interest in Europe and at our national committee meetings (four
per year) I bring a short report and mention items for prayer. It was
good for the women to see Livija in person and she had the opportunity
to speak briefly on the work amongst Baptist women in areas of Europe.
I know that since then the interest has been maintained – long may it
continue! It was a joy to have Livija with us and for her to be able to
participate in the conference. The women received her well and now when
we are thinking about Europe they picture her as a real person and not
just a name. She encouraged us and was keen to hear how things are in
SBWF and she left something of the fragrance of Jesus among us.
These times of gathering together are always precious and beneficial in
our walk with Jesus as we seek to follow Him more closely and more
obediently, and so we give God thanks for all that was accomplished.
Margaret Brown
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